Pallet

What it means

The 48 x 40 in. pallet, often called the GMA pallet, is the dominant standardized size in the U.S. A USDA Forest Service study found it made up about 35% of new wood pallet production and 69% of the recycled or remanufactured market in 2016. Stringer pallets were the leading type at 76% of production, block pallets about 21% and skids about 3%.^[1]

A skid is the simpler cousin: in FedEx Freight's words, "a pallet has bottom deck boards, and a skid doesn't."^[2] How many pallets fit in a container or trailer is worked out from published inside dimensions in container vs. trailer capacity. Wood pallets crossing borders must meet ISPM 15; CBP states there is no treatment or marking requirement for wood packaging in domestic circulation.^[3]

How many square feet and cubic feet is a pallet?

A 48 x 40 in. pallet covers 1,920 square inches. Divide by 144 and that is 13.33 square feet of floor. Cubic feet depend on how tall the load is built, so multiply 13.33 by the total height in feet:

That is the space the unit load takes up, not the volume of product on it. Part of the height is the pallet itself: CHEP lists its pooled 48 x 40 block pallet at 5.6 in. tall.^[4] Height limits are often set by the receiver. SPS Commerce lists Walmart and Target at 60 in. maximum including the pallet, and Amazon FBA at 72 in. for non-stackable loads and 48 in. for stackable ones.^[7]

How much can a pallet hold?

There is no single number, because capacity depends on the pallet's design and on how it is supported. A Virginia Tech study of wood pallet performance notes that pallets meet warehouse racks, handling equipment and floor stacking during their life, and tested them racked across the length, racked across the width, on fork truck tines and floor stacked.^[6] Spec sheets therefore give separate ratings, commonly labeled:

• Static. The pallet resting on a flat floor, supported across its whole bottom.
• Dynamic. The pallet being lifted and moved on forks or a pallet jack.
• Racked. The pallet spanning the beams of a storage rack, supported only at its edges or ends.

Two published ratings show how far apart these can be. CHEP says its pooled 48 x 40 wood block pallet is designed to carry 2,800 lb of uniformly distributed load in normal operation, and that loaded pallets can be block stacked up to 5 high as long as the stack does not exceed 10,000 lb.^[4] ORBIS lists one reinforced 40 x 48 plastic pallet at 30,000 lb static, 3,000 lb dynamic, 3,000 lb supported rack and 1,200 lb edge rack.^[5]

Those figures belong to those specific pallets. A used or lightly built 48 x 40 is not covered by them, so ask the supplier for the rating that matches how the pallet will be used, and note whether it assumes an evenly spread load, as CHEP's does.^[4]

How many boxes on a pallet?

It depends on carton size, the height limit and the weight limit. Warehouses count it as Ti-Hi: Ti is the number of cases in one layer, Hi is the number of layers, and Ti times Hi is the number of cases per pallet.^[7]

Cartons should reach the pallet's edge without hanging over it. SPS Commerce calls overhang a major safety hazard and a frequent trigger for retailer chargebacks.^[7] The pallet calculator works out the layer pattern and case count for a given carton size, pallet and height limit.

Why it matters

Broken pallets, overhang and loads built above a receiver's height limit are common reasons freight is refused or charged back. RapidShips repalletizes and reworks freight at its cross-dock in East Brunswick, NJ when a load arrives on pallets that will not pass the next receiver.

Example

Illustrative only: a shipper has 16 x 12 x 10 in. cartons going to a receiver with a 60 in. height limit. Three cartons fit along the 48 in. side (3 x 16 in.) and three along the 40 in. side (3 x 12 in. = 36 in.), so Ti is 9. With a pallet about 5.6 in. tall, roughly 54 in. remains, which fits 5 layers of 10 in., so Hi is 5. Ti x Hi gives 45 cartons. If each carton weighs 40 lb, the load is 1,800 lb plus the pallet, which the shipper then checks against the pallet's rating.

Common confusions

• Pallet vs. skid. A skid has no bottom deck boards.^[2] That matters for forklift entry and for stacking, so state which one is shipping.
• Static rating vs. rack rating. A pallet that holds a heavy load on the floor may be rated far lower in a rack, as the ORBIS ratings above show.^[5]
• Square feet vs. cubic feet. The 13.33 sq ft footprint never changes; the cubic feet grow with every inch of height.
• Domestic vs. export pallets. ISPM 15 treatment and marking apply to wood packaging moving internationally, not to pallets in domestic circulation.^[3]

Frequently asked questions